A Wormhole in My Pocket

By K Divyanand

In the vast emptiness of space, a tiny speck of machinery was moving through the void. The machine was an American space shuttle, piloted by an aged, nomadic, and experienced astronaut, named Iris. After the very successful mission to Neptune, she was commissioned to return home, to Earth. Iris, who spent more than 25 years of her life in space and space stations, was returning to Earth. The thought of returning home made her very happy as she was navigating toward the Earth. Now, her only goal in life was to retire and say goodbye to what had been a long and lonely journey through the solar system.

On Earth, the team at Houston's Mission Control Center, notice some strange disturbances in the frequencies of their radio receiver. It was the same receiver that they used to communicate with Iris during her missions. They expect it to be another message from Iris and channel the frequencies. However, it turns out that it was only a short message that just said, "HELLO."

The Mission Control, being confused, questions the purpose of the message to Iris. Iris receives the message and becomes confused. She gets in contact with Mission Control after checking her radio for a few minutes. I"I didn't send anything sir. It must have been a mistake." Iris says.

"But we received the message from your channel. Please cross-examine Iris." Replies Mission Control.

"My channel? I had turned it off many days ago. It must have been redirected to you as it must have been sent on the same frequency."

"Redirected? From where?"

Iris thinks for a while and asks Mission Control to turn off the channel between them so she can turn on her radio and see the messages for herself. She believes it to be an SOS signal from somewhere within her range. After a while, Iris receives a signal on her radio. She picks it up and decodes the message. On decoding the message, her mind starts to wander off. It starts to generate visions of a strange planet. A planet that looks far from what Earth does but contains life. Intelligent life. Iris gets mingled into all these visions of this planet that she never visited. She shakes her head to get back to her senses and being a little unclear about what happened, she reads the message which surprises her. It read, "IS IT YOU?"

In one of her visions, she sees a young man in a white lab coat. Probably some scientist, she thinks to herself, as she sees a group of them working on equations and particle accelerators. Although she never saw any of their faces. She sees the 

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

young man, running towards the group, in a hurry. After some discussion between them, the group becomes overjoyed and they start to celebrate. Following that, she sees the young man work on some sort of a sophisticated transmitting device.

As she gets these visions, she sends a message on the same frequency, that reads, "Do you know me?"

After a very long time, she receives a reply. "You're in a spaceship in some planetary system."

On seeing this, Iris immediately transmits, "How do you know?"

Again after a very long time, she receives, "An experiment."

On reading the reply and while halfway typing another message, she gets another message that says, "Wormholes."

Seeing this, Iris gets perplexed as a train of abstract thoughts occupies her mind.

Far far away, Cooper was sitting and going through his math that he wrote down on a few sheets of paper. He was part of a team of scientists who were researching the space-time continuum. The relation between space and time, and its physics. Cooper was responsible for creating a mathematical model of space-time and its curvature, such that communication with distant stars could be achieved. After many months of hard work, Cooper finishes his model and is ecstatic on seeing the results.

He jumps out of his chair and is on his way to report to his team when he suddenly gets stopped by some vague visions of a spaceship exploring a planetary system. In his visions, the spaceship looked completely different than what they sent into their orbit. Moreover, he sees, that the spaceship contained only one person, a female. Floating around in zero gravity. Cross-checking all the safety hatches. Although he couldn't see her face, he could only observe that she was a young woman, surviving alone in the void of space.

This intrigues Cooper and he goes to his team to show the results. Cooper's results were the last piece in the puzzle that the scientists were trying to solve. They hug each other, jump in joy, and celebrate the moment of creating history. They communicate the same to their team of astronauts in their orbit. On receiving the news, they begin to work on their next mission. Interstellar communication. After all the celebrations, Cooper goes back to the control center and starts to work on their next task at hand.

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

After working for many days, they become successful in establishing a prototype. To test it, Cooper goes to the radio transmitter and is tasked to somehow create communication channels at various frequencies. Just as a trial, Cooper sends a message that reads, "HELLO", to the astronauts at the frequencies that he decided upon. But unknowingly, one of the channels he creates doesn't reach them. That particular channel creates a lot of disturbances in the transmitter. While checking that, his mind gets cluttered again by the visions of the young woman. He stares at the transmitter for some time and suddenly transmits the message, "IS IT YOU?"

Iris gets freaked out on seeing the message read, "Wormholes." Sometime later, as she begins to prepare the message, asking who and where is this coming from, she receives a reply that says, "I'm Cooper. From the planet Xanthera."

Iris couldn't believe, what she had received. She immediately contacts Houston and tells her everything that happened with the anonymous messages. After that, she gets orders to maintain communication with the person and keep them in the loop. So, Iris sends Cooper a message saying,

"I'm Iris. Glad to establish communication with you."

Cooper receives this message and immediately informs that their prototype is a success. Then Iris and Cooper start exchanging information about their respective planets, star systems, missions and much more. While communicating, Iris gets visions of a space shuttle slowly moving through space, building something while the young man and his team instruct them. Also, Cooper gets visions of the young woman orbiting around a huge planet with many moons around it, gathering information.

During their communication, even before Iris could send a message, she would receive a reply for the message she was about to send. Iris gets shocked by every reply that she gets, on how Cooper could predict her messages. She goes into deep thought about this phenomenon. While searching for answers, she again gets visions of the young man, but this time, just sitting and transmitting a message.

After a long time, something clicks in Iris' mind. This phenomenon of predicting messages occurred for the first time when Cooper sent the message "Wormhole". So Iris realizes that it must hold the key to her answer. Thinking for some more time and recollecting a lot of her education, she stumbles upon the principle. She immediately starts to code the message, "I am getting your replies even before I send something. Is it because of the space-time continuum?"

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

Cooper is surprised on receiving the message beforehand and thinks about it for a while. A feeling of discovering something new and interesting overwhelms him and he sends the reply, "You are one smart girl." Iris on getting the message, changes from joyful to intrigued as this was the first time in her lonely journey, someone complimented her brilliance.

Iris' intrigue makes her think about the young boy in her visions. So she sends,

"Are you the young man in my visions?"

Upon receiving it, Cooper is shocked. He thinks to himself about how she gets the visions as well. After thinking for some time and assuming some things, Cooper comes up with an interesting hypothesis. He states that if space-time is bent to a certain degree, then it distorts anything that's sent through it and anything that's at the receiver's end. Hence, he replies, "Maybe."

Both Cooper and Iris smile at their respective ends after sending and receiving the message, respectively. They continue their conversations. Iris sends, "You know, based on what I've seen, you're a real hard worker."

Cooper replies, "If you're building a wormhole then you need to work hard ma'am." chuckling to himself.

Iris then tells Cooper about her visions. How they started, what she saw, and her thoughts as they continued their conversation. Meanwhile, as days passed, the team of scientists on Xanthera improved upon their prototype and made it more efficient. Iris continued to orbit Neptune in her space shuttle.

Once the required machines were built on Xanthera, the scientists instructed their astronauts to begin building the additional support machines in space to assist the process of bending space-time, to create a tunnel through space that could enable Interstellar communication. They realized that if they could multiply frequencies across even more channels, then they might eventually contact beings from other star systems, like Iris. But for that to happen, they must create a stable wormhole so that many channels could pass through it. Hence they continue working towards their ultimate goal.

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

During this time, in one of their conversations, Iris asks Cooper about his life. Cooper feels that he's become pretty close to Iris by now so he starts to tell his story. He sends,

"As a kid, I always wanted to become an astronaut. A space guy, as I used to call it. That never worked out for me but I found a new interest in Quantum Physics. So, I mastered it and I'm now building wormholes by using its mechanics. I had a tough childhood. I had to stay away from my parents for almost all of my boy years, for education, until I found out that they were killed in a car crash. I miss them a lot. I wish I could meet them for one last time and tell them that I've achieved what I dreamt."

Iris gets pretty emotional on hearing Cooper's story. She wanted to console him somehow. Then an idea pops into her head. She stretches out her hand and waves it like she's patting someone. She then begins to send a message and in the middle of transmitting it, she receives,

"Thank you, Iris. You're not a nobody to me."

Meanwhile, Cooper receives the message before Iris sends her message, which would have read, "I don't know much about Quantum Physics, but I've heard that it involves matter measured in probability waves. So here I am, waving my hand onto your back. If I'm right then the waves from my hand should travel across space such that it must have some probability of reaching you, wherever you are in this universe. I know I'm a nobody but your parents will be proud of what you've achieved."

This brings a smile to Cooper's face as he sends the thank you message which makes Iris smile as well.

She then receives a message from Cooper, "What's your story?"

Iris happily obliges and sends,

"I'm an astronaut and you're an astronomer. We're essentially under the same roof. I didn't have any plans for my life except for becoming an astronaut. I worked hard and somehow I got the opportunity. I joined the training program, passed out with flying colors, and got my first mission eventually. To go to our planet's moon to help in expanding the base. Then got selected as one of the pilots to explore our solar system. Years passed by as I wandered through space, alone, exploring other planets and stuff. The others didn't make it, so I'm the only one left, for more than 20 years. But now I don't feel lonely anymore. I feel like I've got someone."

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

Seeing this, Cooper becomes happy. He replies,

"You're the most incredible person I met in my life, Iris."

Iris replies, "And you are the only person I've met that made me feel like I should keep you for the rest of my life."

As both Iris and Cooper enjoy their moment of bonding, Cooper suddenly realizes something weird. He immediately messages Iris,

"Iris, did you say you were alone in space for more than 20 years?"

Iris replies, "Yes. Why do you ask?"

Cooper replies, "When I see you in my visions, I see you as a young woman who is orbiting a huge planet with beautiful rings."

Iris replies, "The planet with rings is called Saturn. But that was almost 15 years ago. I'm old, Cooper."

Cooper is stunned after seeing Iris' message. His mind is stuck between various confusing elements. He couldn't listen, speak, or feel anything for a while. He then calms himself down and starts to think about what was he missing in the visions he gets.

The scientists and astronauts of Xanthera completed building the wormhole machines, meanwhile, as days passed. The only thing left was to construct the wormhole and send the brave astronauts through it. They named the mission as The Pocket Wormhole Exploration. Step by step, one by one, each machine was turned on with utmost care and precision. The machines generated massive amplitudes of waves into space, where the boosters were placed. These support machines boosted the waves and concentrated them into a small area in space. The idea was that these waves would carry so much energy that they would bend space-time and create a wormhole.

Cooper was still confused about the visions that he had and the information that Iris had given him. He thinks a lot about it while walking, eating, or even working on the project. Suddenly, something clicks in his mind. He immediately messages Iris,

"Iris. Try to remember your visions and tell them to me in the order in which you saw them."

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

Iris recollects for some time and tells Cooper whatever visions she has seen ever since she received the first message. After seeing Iris' replies, Cooper comes to a conclusion. He messages both his team and Iris the same thing,

"The visions I'm getting are of Iris from the past. And the visions that Iris is getting about me are from the future, based on what she told me. Think about it, she saw us celebrating even before I solved the equations. She saw our astronauts building the wave boosters. She saw me transmitting a message even before she received it. Our communication didn't distort, not only space-time but also our minds. She can see our future! It can only mean one thing guys. Iris, you're a genius! You've made our mission 100 times easier to achieve."

Iris couldn't believe it when she saw Cooper's message. She became so happy for them and was willing to help the scientists of Xanthera in the Pocket Wormhole mission. Cooper asks her to tell them if she had any visions for the past few days about them. Iris recalls and tells them that she could only see the machines doing something.

Cooper and his team kept working on constructing the wormhole for many days. Iris doesn't get any visions in the meantime as she waits for Cooper's messages. Many days pass as the machines keep running until one final day, the unthinkable happens. The area in which the waves were concentrated, starts to create illusions. Illusions that are created in a kaleidoscope. twisting, turning, rotating and finally, the space collapsed into itself, revealing an area covered with darkness but had a glimmer surrounding it. The scientists of Xanthera were successful in constructing a wormhole.

As soon as this happened, every person in the research center was overwhelmed with joy. In his extreme happiness, Cooper messages Iris, "Iris. We did it! I am coming."

Iris on seeing the message also feels extremely happy for Cooper and his team. The astronauts board their respective space shuttles and take off into space towards the wormhole. Cooper stayed on the ground to maintain communication with the astronauts. As the astronauts were heading toward the wormhole, Iris gets a vision. She sees that the space shuttles were never able to enter into the wormhole.

She senses that something must be wrong and sends a message to Cooper about it. But, to her surprise, she doesn't get any reply from Cooper. She sends the same message again and again but she doesn't even see anything on her receiver. Meanwhile, as the astronauts were getting closer to the wormhole, instead of getting faster, they noticed that they seemed to be going slower than their assumptions.

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

The astronauts contact Cooper and explain their situation. This confuses Cooper as well who was trying to manage the ground team, maintain steady contact with the astronauts, and also check for Iris' messages, at the same time. After a few minutes, the machines on the ground, that were generating waves, start to heat up all of a sudden. The compasses and location trackers start to spin uncontrollably and stop working altogether. If the astronauts were going into the wormhole, then why does it affect the magnetic field of the planet, wondered Cooper. In a shocking twist of reality, Cooper understands the situation and immediately starts to send messages to Iris.

On the other side, Iris starts to get visions again. Visions of giant volcanoes erupting, massive quakes shaking the ground and the climate getting hotter and hotter. She senses it as an immediate danger and begins messaging Cooper, in a hurry. But she doesn't get any reply from the other side. Suddenly, her receiver starts to beep a little. She quickly tries to intercept the message but it had a lot of disturbance in it. So, she starts to track where the message signals could have come from. She eventually tracks it but she develops a sense of fear, on knowing where it was coming from. Away from Neptune, a place where she never explored.

She knew that beyond Neptune, there exists a place called the Kuiper Belt. So she immediately contacts Houston to get information about it. Iris asks,

"Houston! What do we know about the Kuiper Belt?"

The Mission Control replies, "It's similar to the asteroid belt. Contains asteroids, comets, and other space rocks."

"Any missions related to that?"

"Many. All of them failed as we lost communication with every single robot we sent. Why do you want to know?"

"I'm going there!" Iris cuts off her contact with Mission Control and exits the orbit of Neptune, going away from it.

As she races towards the Kuiper Belt, the message signals become less disturbed. That's how Iris knew that she was going in the right direction. All the while, she tried to communicate with Cooper, sending him loads of messages that read, "Cooper, I know you're getting these messages even before I generate them so please do 

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

something. You are in danger. Something weird is happening. Please tell me that you're safe."

After traveling a long way away from Neptune, Iris receives her first message from Cooper, the message that was disturbed.

"What do you mean space shuttles not able to enter the wormhole?"

This surprises Iris as she had sent the original message many days ago. She starts to get worried as she moves further towards the Kuiper Belt. Moving on, she gets another message from Cooper.

"Iris, what do you see? Something is not right here."

As Iris was coming closer to the Kuiper Belt, the frequency of messages started to increase. Iris understands that this signifies her getting closer and closer to the origin of the messages, Cooper. She receives many messages from Cooper, that read,

"Iris, why aren't you talking to me? The machines are heating all of a sudden. What is happening? Did you see all this?"

"Guys we have to destroy the machines! The wormhole is becoming unstable, we have to evaporate it. It's messing with our planet's magnetic field."

"The astronauts aren't going slower, it's us! The whole planet is being sucked into the wormhole!"

"Iris, we have destroyed the machines, the wormhole is getting evaporated, but we're still getting pulled into it."

Iris was horrified at seeing these messages as she tried to control her emotions and not lose hope. She tries to send messages again but they could not be sent as the radio showed that the channel had closed. Iris was in immense panic as she was not able to make out anything from the situation she found herself in. She holds her head being nervous and anxious while aimlessly wandering around her space shuttle.

After a few minutes, her radio receiver beeps. Iris rushes to the radio and checks the message she received. It was from Cooper. Immediately, she decodes it and starts to read it out.

A WORMHOLE IN MY POCKET

"Iris, I can see you. Through the wormhole. I can see that you're orbiting that planet you called Saturn. I can also see that you are stationed near a blue icy planet while communicating with me. I can see the young woman helping in the expansion of her planet's moon base. I can see time from where I am. Your journey has been for more than 20 years but from what I see, it's just an instant. That describes my journey compared to yours, it's just an instant. But what a journey it's been. I've never met a person in my life with whom I felt a special connection, that I felt with you. You are the solar system's hero. It's been an honor ma'am. As I get squished in this collapsing wormhole, all I can think of is going to the place my parents went and telling them that I've achieved all my dreams. Goodbye."

Iris becomes devastated as she could feel her heart break into a thousand pieces. The only person with whom she had a personal connection, had vanished into higher dimensions. She stared out of her window, into oblivion, as the harsh truth stood before her. Planet Xanthera gets sucked into the wormhole, due to its unstable and destructive nature. The planet got squished into an area, a million times smaller than itself, like a person getting squished through a 2-inch hole. Planet Xanthera gets completely incinerated and comes out on the other side of the wormhole as tiny asteroids and other heavenly bodies. Those asteroids, dust, and debris become a part of what we call, The Kuiper Belt.

THE END

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By K Divyanand